


Miraculous Tales by Ladybug & Chat Noir

by RoaringTurtle



Series: Other Kinds of Quadrilaterals [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Miraculous, But the Characters only realize it at the end, Comic Book Authors AU, Dramatic Irony, Fluff, Gen, Humor, I also borrow the PV Character names, Identity Reveal, In comics, Lots of secondhand shame, One Shot, Platonic Relationships, Their spirit lives on, rip tikki and plagg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25041577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoaringTurtle/pseuds/RoaringTurtle
Summary: Ladybug and Chat Noir are the artist and writer duo behind the hit webcomic,Miraculous.But after finishing their masterpiece, the two of them are struck with a serious case of writer’s block. The two of them agree that it may be best to take a break to try to work on their own, at least until they get out of their slump.But Marinette is a terrible writer! She can’t do it all on her own, but fortunately her friend Adrien is in a similar predicament…
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Other Kinds of Quadrilaterals [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798078
Comments: 13
Kudos: 78





	Miraculous Tales by Ladybug & Chat Noir

“I still can’t believe that Duusu was the traitor! I was _sure_ that it was going to be Pollen!” Alya could not stop raving about the latest update of a webcomic called _Miraculous_. It was the tale of Tikki and Plagg as they fought against the evil Nooroo and his akumatized soldiers. Along the way, they found other allies as the stakes got more dangerous the closer they got to Nooroo. It wasn’t that popular, but because of Alya’s enthusiasm, most of the class started following it. Even Chloe, who claimed she would never bother with such a dorky story (until she learned that Adrien read it), fell in love with Tikki and proudly wore her merch.

“It’s been a week and you still aren’t letting that go, are you?” Marinette teased her friend. 

“I mean, Pollen could be a jerk, but she’s working to be better. The authors wouldn’t just throw away all that development just to make her a villain.” Adrien chimed in.

“And everyone knew Duusu would do anything for their boss. I just can’t believe her boss was actually Nooroo!” Marinette justified the plot twist since she had seen it coming for a while.

“I knoooow! And looking back, it was so obvious! There were so many tiny hints and details.” Alya hid her head in her hands in embarrassment, “But I was so sure it was Pollen! I even posted a meta on my blog! No one will ever trust me again!”

“C’mon babe. I’m sure your followers don’t expect your theories to be right 100% of the time.” Nino tried to comfort his girlfriend, “Just make another post about all the foreshadowing you found.”

“They have literally been telling me this for months! They’ll never let me live this down! And I can’t believe Ladybug and Chat Noir strung me along like that! I mean, I love them, but it’s still so frustrating.” Alya kicked at the base of their desk, which sent the vibrations all the way to Marinette.

“They’re so good though!” Nino nodded, “And can you believe they are our age? They must be geniuses or something. I don’t think I could make something like _Miraculous_ and pass my classes at the same time. That’s way too much for me.”

“I mean, you spend most of your time DJing, so it’s not like you have any spare time to make a webcomic,” Adrien defended Nino from his own worst critic, “But you’re right, they’re amazing. The art is always so breathtaking.” Adrien always brought up the art. He loved the full page spreads and the fight scenes since he thought they were so creative and ‘cool-looking’. Marinette was pretty sure his phone’s background was some of Ladybug’s art. It was actually their shared interest in the webcomic that led to them becoming friends (which seemed impossible at first due to her extremely debilitating crush on him).

“Sure the art’s fine, but the writing is what makes it a masterpiece,” Marinette jumped into her age-old argument with Adrien raring to go. The characters were so deep and complex, and the dialogue could actually be pretty funny, even if there were a few too many puns, but the worldbuilding more than made up for that. And Marinette always admired Chat Noir’s ability to go from light conversations to weighty character insight that never felt out of place or forced.

“Excuse me!?” Adrien sputtered “Most of that writing is from the visuals! The expressions alone tell a whole story!”

“Please, Ladybug could draw stick figures and the story could _easily_ carry the same drama. Chat Noir is the one who made all the characters so real and relatable!”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree, Marinette,” Adrien shook his head since he knew that he just couldn’t convince her that Ladybug’s artwork was in any way better than Chat Noir’s storytelling. Nino gave a quick sigh of relief that the situation de-escalated so quickly, mostly since he still remembered the dark ages where they brought in fully annotated comics to prove their points. Fortunately, the debate had reduced itself to friendly snipes at each other, but Nino once told Marinette that he thought the blonde and her would end their friendship over the argument.

Marinette didn’t think they were _that_ bad.

“You guys really shouldn’t bother comparing them anyways,” Alya the superfan insisted to their disbelieving faces, “I’m just saying, everything they do just highlights each other’s talents. They are basically the perfect partners!”

Adrien rolled his eyes and Marinette stuck her tongue at him.

* * *

“People at my school were talking about Duusu at my school today.” Ladybug laughed over a voice chat with her partner as she started working on the pages for the next update. “We got them good!” 

“I know!” Chat’s overeager voice replied, “But I still can’t believe that people are actually talking about us in public. I never thought we would be so famous!” In fact, when they had started on _Miraculous_ , they thought it would be a fun little project between online friends, completely self-indulgent. Somehow, before they knew it, they actually had a fanbase, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were making money from it! The ads and merch (Did the physical version of it count? Since that wasn’t exactly a webcomic…) actually helped Marinette afford a nice, new drawing tablet, much to her parent’s confusion. They were the only ones who knew about Marinette’s secret identity and they were very supportive, even if they were confused about how this worked without a publishing deal.

But she always loved to hear her friends and classmates talk about her work. Marinette was practically glowing when Nathanial and his boyfriend started making fan comics about _Miraculous_ because strangers on the internet are one thing, but she actually knew these people! Also, her best friend ran a fan-blog practically worshiping her and Chat Noir, but somehow Marinette got used to that.

“Yeah, she thought that Pollen would be the traitor! It almost makes me feel bad since we threw in all those red herrings on purpose, but I still feel kinda smug that she fell for them.” Marinette was trying so hard to hide her smirk all day with Alya. It was hard enough to pretend that she didn’t know exactly where the story was going whenever she talked with her theorizing best friend!

“Yeah, I know Pollen can be hard to love, but I’d like to think she is a good person underneath all that. I actually based her off of someone I know in real life, so I guess I have a soft spot for her.” It wasn’t unusual for Chat to base a character off of someone he knew in real life or some facet of himself, but most of them were exaggerated and molded enough to become their own separate characters. And of course, they always became fan-favorites. 

His trademark was deep and complex characters as well as the really bad jokes.

“Seriously? I mean, I love how over the top she can be, but she sounds like a pain to deal with in real life.” Ladybug tried to imagine Pollen as a real person but instantly thought of Chloe. She immediately tried to ignore the similarities because she didn’t want to completely ruin Pollen by associating her with Chloe in her mind!

“I mean, she can be kind of abrasive… But sometimes it’s actually funny since real-life Pollen hates Pollen since she bullied Tikki in the beginning.” Chat laughed at the irony of the situation.

“So did she think Pollen was the traitor?” Ladybug asked, curious to see how little faith real-life Pollen had in herself.

“Actually she was adamantly against the possibility of her turning. Said that Pollen was a true hero, so she would never do it. Real Life Pollen may see more of herself than she realizes.” Chat had a fondness in his voice.

“So did she guess that it was Duusu?” Ladybug asked since it was pretty easy to guess Duusu was the traitor if you ruled out Pollen.

“Ha! No, she thought it was Plagg.” Chat Noir snorted.

“Seriously? But he is a main character! How would that even work?” Ladybug just couldn’t follow that faulty logic.

“No clue. Then again, the Pollen in the comic isn’t always the smartest either.” Chat chuckled as he badmouthed his friend behind her back.

“Don’t insult my baby like that!” Ladybug gaped in mock defense of the character. The two of them had this strange thing where they called all their characters their babies. Even the evil ones. Mostly because they loved all of them. Even the evil ones.

“Dumb Baby!” Chat was goaded on by Ladybug, even if he couldn’t stop laughing.

“You’re a dumb baby!” Now Ladybug couldn’t stop giggling.

“No, you!” Chat had actually won a prize for being a rookie writer before. Ladybug wondered if she could ask them to take it back.

“Really? That’s the best you could come up with? I think I need to find a new partner if you resort to comebacks like that.”

“They can’t all be winners.” Chat Noir probably shrugged, not that Ladybug would know over a voice chat since neither of them felt comfortable with video calls. Chat was Ladybug’s best friend, but she remembered enough of those online safety courses to not give away too much information to random strangers she had just met online. And then it became a habit that never stopped. Plus she had a mental image of a Chat Noir (it involved a leather jacket that didn’t suit him at all), and it would be tragic to lose that imaginary immersion.

Chat Noir, on the other hand, refused since he was worried that she would recognize him since they both lived in Paris. Ladybug refused to speculate on whether or not he was famous or something since he clearly didn’t want to be known.

Somewhere along the line, they became comfortable with this, knowing basically everything about each other, yet simultaneously nothing.

“Eh, it’s okay. We both know the fans wouldn’t notice since they would be focusing on the art.” Ladybug boasted. She couldn’t have her kitty’s ego get too inflated. She would never say it to his face, but he was actually great.

“Seriously? It’s a graphic _novel_ . People come here to _read_ , you know.” Chat responded, probably prepared since they had this argument every call. They made a fake feud online where they both claimed to be the better half of the duo, and that eventually bled into real life as a joke.

“Yeah, but you use too many puns so that instantly disqualifies you.”

“So when Shakespeare uses puns, he's one of the greatest writers in the world. When I use puns, I’m bullied by my illustrator.” Chat Noir pouted over the mic.

“I only bully because I love. Someone needs to tell you that puns aren’t funny.”

“You’ve told me many times.”

“And _c_ _learly_ the point hasn’t gotten across yet.”

“Screw you, I’m making every other line a pun now!” Chat threatened, and Ladybug was very concerned when she heard the clicking of keys typing.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Marinette was actually panicking now. He had done this before and Ladybug went through actual torture in proofreading the script. And Chat never let Ladybug forget that she let a few lines through since they were actually decent. He claimed it was proof that she didn’t actually have a raging hatred for puns and dad jokes. He was wrong.

“Try and stop me!” Chat gave his best evil cackle. But silently since apparently his parents didn’t know about his secret career and it was kind of late.

* * *

“Has Duusu always been left-handed?” Chat asked, intently watching Ladybug as she worked their final draft.

“I thought it could show how she was holding back before, and only now she’ll show her true strength.” Ladybug told him, recalling her sudden, last-minute burst of inspiration.

“You know, when I wrote in the notes to show she was holding back before, I meant you could draw more muscles or some aura around her.” Chat reminisced about the script he made for her.

When they made a comic, Chat would come up with a basic script, and then they would figure out the storyboards/rough draft together, just to give a basic outline. And once they did that, Ladybug would work her magic and they’d have the final webcomic. 

Sometimes the outlines had barely any detail since the dialogue took up most of the page, and sometimes Ladybug had free reign. For example, during fights Chat Noir trusted Ladybug to make it as dynamic and creative as she wanted. Unless he had some specific story beat in the fight, he basically gave no guidelines except for the page count.

“Duusu is _not_ going to go Super Saiyan!” Ladybug protested. Chat was a huge weeb and Ladybug had to correct him more than once on the proper way to read the speech bubbles. (Left to right! It was a webcomic, not manga! They didn’t even know Japanese!)

“But that would be so cool!” Chat Noir was very fond of the Rule of Cool whenever Ladybug was drawing something. But whenever he was writing, it had to be _“realistic”_ , even though they were literally writing a fantasy comic!

But then again, the hand thing might be a bit too subtle, and Ladybug really needed to show how Duusu was supposed to be a threat. Otherwise, the readers might feel cheated since Duusu was going to be a major antagonist in the future according to Chat’s notes.

“Alright, I’ll give her some magic effects so they know she’s using some powers she kept secret.” Ladybug compromised aloud.

“Seriously? Now I need to come up with something that actually makes sense with her abilities!” Chat whined as Ladybug randomly threw a new story element in.

“That sounds a whole lot like ‘not my problem’. Have fun!” Ladybug smiled sadistically as she continued digitally coloring a panel while Chat brainstormed in the background.

“You’re just lucky this worked out so well with Tikki and the Miraculous Cure last time…” Chat muttered, but Ladybug figured he would come up with a good explanation in time. “Alright, I guess she made a sentimoster that boosts her physical strength? And it balances out since that means she can’t rely on another amok? That way she can be a threat on her own even though she was basically a white mage up until now.”

“You’re welcome.” Ladybug chimed in once he finished his brainstorming, making the story even better than before. Sometimes she felt bad whenever the commenters called the two of them geniuses since they basically wrote by the seat of their pants. Some of their best work came about because the two of them liked to make life harder for each other, forcing the other to step up.

“Fuck off.”

* * *

“Alya, you better have a _very_ good reason for calling me at 2:00 in the morning?” Marinette demanded. She and Chat had just uploaded their final chapter and it was completely draining for the two of them. There was a strange somber atmosphere instead of their usual jubilation that the deadline was over.

After all, they had been working on that comic for over 3 years and now it was over. It was both relieving since there were going to be no more crunchtime, but also hollow in a way. _Miraculous_ had been such a big part of her life, so now she wasn’t sure what to do now that it was over. There was so much to feel at once, and Marinette just wanted to go to sleep and hopefully recover.

“Girl, you can _not_ be asking me that right now.” Alya’s voice was wide awake, something Marinette was extremely envious of, “The final chapter of _Miraculous,_ just came out! You can’t expect me _not_ to gush about it with you!”

“Isn’t Nino your boyfriend? I feel like 2:00 AM calls belong in boyfriend territory and not best friend territory.” Marinette should have realized that _Miraculous_ wasn’t going to let go of her just yet.

“Nino? He goes to bed super early though, like before midnight. I swear he’s secretly an old man. Besides, you’re always up at weird times.” Alya protested, “Well, you and Adrien, but you’re my favorite.”

“That also means I’m going to bed at weird times. Namely now.”

“Okay, I swear I won’t bother you too much! You can go to bed and just let me ramble over the phone. It’s just there’s too much! I’m too excited to sleep! I have to tell someone about how brilliant it is or else I feel like I will literally explode.” Alya just loved Ladybug and Chat Noir’s work so much that Marinette couldn’t help but feel touched. After all, Alya was her fan, and Marinette was proud of all she had done. Even if she would later look at her work and realize all the tiny errors she should have caught and places she could have done better. Honestly, those mistakes made it hard to completely enjoy her work, but at least Chat Noir’s writing was first-class.

“Alright, but I’ll be half-asleep, you weirdo.” Marinette conceded and received a happy squeal from her best friend.

So Marinette fell asleep to the gentle tones of Alya shrieking about how good the finale was and how all the arcs and themes wrapped up, how satisfying the character’s endings were, and the beautiful final full-page spread.

* * *

It had been a month and the world was awaiting the next project by Ladybug and Chat Noir. Fans begged for any information about their next project. Publishers gave offer after offer to sign the two. Someone even wrote an article about their work for an online newspaper.

But after the final chapter, their website was filled with posts of how thankful the authors were for the fan support and general Q&As now that the story had been told.

But there was radio silence about their future.

Mostly because the two teenagers had no idea.

“Okay, so I came up with a new character design,” Ladybug screen shared a WIP she had prepared, “He’s a snarky jerk with a heart of gold who–.”

“Milady, I’m going to stop you there. You just made Plagg again.” Chat Noir rudely cut her off, but Ladybug had expected this argument.

“No you see, this character has brown hair! He’s completely different!” Ladybug pointed out the only difference but convinced absolutely no one in the call. “Okay, fine. I’m stuck.” She pouted and crossed her arms. She had been trying so hard and this was somehow her best work!

“Well, I can’t blame you. After all, I’ve been trying all month and I still can’t come up with a concept that isn’t a _Miraculous_ clone.” Chat lamented. They were so in sync they somehow shared the exact same problem! She had spent so much time on _Miraculous_ , it was affecting her. She literally couldn’t come up with anything unrelated to her old webcomic! “Do you think we jumped the shark? Like is _Miraculous_ our Magnum Opus and now nothing else we do can ever compare?”

“That can’t be true!” Ladybug insisted, despite burying those same thoughts not too long ago. “…But then again, maybe it is. I mean, whatever we make will be directly compared to our last work. So if it isn’t good, then they’ll lose all hope in us and then they’ll go back to see that _Miraculous_ was actually mediocre too! And then–”

“Hold on, Ladybug, take a deep breath for me.” Chat Noir put a stop to any downward spirals Marinette would have had which probably ended with her claiming that they would have mobs of protesters tearing up their comics in front of their homes, despite both of their identities being secret. “Are you good?”

“Better, I guess.” Ladybug was thankful that Chat had so much experience in dealing with her. “Thanks.”

“No problem. But you might be right. I’ve been thinking, and if we do another fantasy or adventure story, it will compete with _Miraculous_ , and I don’t really want that. I want whatever we make to be its own thing. But if we jump into another genre, we might disappoint our fans…” Chat sounded frustrated as he listed the possible futures. It looked like there was no winning for them.

And maybe that was true.

“Do you think we should take a break?” Ladybug offered her last resort, something she never wanted to do but she was being pushed to the edge right now! After all, it had been a month and they had gotten literally nothing done. This led her to draw some unflattering conclusions.

For once their partnership was holding them back.

“You mean a hiatus?” Chat Noir didn’t seem to understand what she meant, “I guess that might help, but I’d feel kind of restless not working…”

“No, Chat, I meant from each other.” It hurt Ladybug to say that, but it was the only option, “As long as we work together, I don’t think either of us can move on. I think we are subconsciously limiting ourselves to what we know we can do.”

“That… might be a lot truer than I’m willing to admit.” It probably pained Chat just as much as it hurt Ladybug to admit, “But do you think we could still call each other even if we aren’t working together anymore? I don’t want to stop being friends with you.” His voice sounded hurt, which was like a dagger in her heart.

“Chat… Of course we will!” Ladybug was dumbfounded (and a little insulted) that Chat thought that he could get rid of her so easily! They were partners, and she wasn’t letting go of him, even if they had to go their own separate ways! “You’re one of my best friends, and nothing will change that. And this will only be temporary, and we can work together again once we break out of this slump!”

“Right, what was I thinking?” Chat laughed away his pessimistic thoughts, “Even if we are apart, we’re partners.”

* * *

Marinette didn’t know what she was thinking back then! She was way too cocky and now the universe was making her pay for it!

Sure, she acted like it would be fine to work as a solo comic book writer, but it had been years since she last did this kind of work on her own! She had zero ideas on what to do! And whenever she wrote any dialogue, it always sounded so samey!

This was a complete disaster!

So in an attempt to ignore her problems, she decided to focus on what she excelled at, drawing. And that wasn’t just pride talking, after all, people paid her for commissions, so her fans must have thought she was doing something right! Even if one of them was Chat Noir who just made her draw a bunch of visual puns to torture her. Then again, he properly paid her so it wasn’t that bad.

Plus some of them actually made her laugh, not that she’d ever admit it out loud.

Recently, in an attempt to branch out from her slump, she had tried drawing characters in a different art style, to distance herself from any Ladybug habits. She even started sketching and looking for inspiration from her classmates at school (something she never did before since _secret identity_ and all that). And it was sort of working? She could still see her style, but she was at least making progress. This time, she even managed to make a completely original design, with almost no influence from Tikki or any of her other babies. Unfortunately, it was completely soulless, more or less a blank slate that had no story of its own.

Chat was having similar progress, or so he claimed last night. He finding inspiration in new places that he had never thought of before! He still wasn’t any closer to making a comic though.

“Wow, Marinette. This looks awesome!” Adrien’s voice broke Marinette out of her trance. She had been working on the drawing during Lunch, and he must have seen her and looked over her shoulder. “I mean, I knew you liked to design, so I should have known you could draw more than just clothes! But you are really good. Is this fan art?”

“Um, thanks?” Marinette responded, futilely trying to hide her drawings by pressing it against her chest. Marinette wasn’t sure how she felt other people seeing her work in person. After all, Ladybug’s drawings were famous, but most people didn’t know about Marinette’s hobby. She liked having a certain level of anonymity.

“Oh, sorry. I guess I should have asked first,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, reminding Marinette that this poor boy had 0 social skills until recently due to his controlling father. 

“No, it’s fine, Adrien! I was just surprised, that’s all.” Marinette smiled at him sweetly to show him that there was no harm done. After all, it was her close friend Adrien, not someone like Chloe, who found out.

“But I meant it! You’re really talented. It reminded me of Ladybug’s art a little bit.” Adrien was barely heard over the sound of alarm bells going off in her head. She secretly thanked her blessings that she was experimenting with her style at the moment, otherwise, someone would have totally exposed her. It would be super embarrassing if the class found out that she was the author of the comic that they had been worshipping. It'd be so shameless!

“Haha, that’s high praise from a Ladybug fan such as yourself!” Marinette pretended to just take the compliment, so she could deflect suspicion later, “Yeah, but she inspired me to try drawing comics, so she influenced me a little.” Man, she felt so shameless right now. Sure some people had been said that they had been motivated by her work, but claiming that Marinette was inspired by Ladybug? That was just too much!

She could never let her friends find out she was Ladybug now.

“So can you write as well? I know you love Chat Noir, so are you planning on following in their footsteps? Although maybe without the puns since you always hated those.” Adrien fondly smirked as he remembered her praise and that the only problem she had with Chat Noir was those damn puns.

“I wish, but I’m no good at writing.” Marinette laughed as she showed him an empty table next to her sketch that was marked ‘characteristics’, “I guess that’s why I admired him so much. We all want what we don’t have.”

“That’s so true! I mean, I wanted to write a comic, but I can’t draw at all. Maybe that’s why I liked Ladybug so much…” He trailed off as he realized they were essentially mirrors of each other.

Wait, did he say he wanted to write a comic?

“Hey, Marinette, do you want to make a comic with me?” Adrien asked.

“Uh, sure,” Marinette replied. She was about to ask him actually, but she didn’t expect him to be that assertive or direct. After all, she had done this in secret since she started, and it was kind of strange to be so open about it.

“Really! Do you mean it?” There was a child-like innocence in those wide eyes.

“Yeah, I’ve seen some of the papers you did for the Creative Writing assignments, so I know you’re good.” Marinette did not need to tell him that it was during her crush phase so she would have loved regardless of quality. But she had seen what he could write, and he had a natural talent, almost like Chat Noir. Personally, Marinette felt like he had no reason to be so good at writing dialogue considering all those years he was isolated from basically everyone, but then again he did like to read a lot. “Besides, it would be fun to work on this with friends!”

“Right, just for fun! It’s not like we are writing the next _Miraculous_ or anything!” Adrien released a strange laugh, but Marinette felt he struck the nail on the head. After all, she was planning to work with Chat after this anyways, but she always had fun hanging out with Adrien.

“Ha! Can you imagine! Us writing _Miraculous_ ! That’s _crazy_!” Marinette was laughing outside by dying on the inside because of how close that was to reality. Half of that team was right here!

* * *

“So I’m going to work with someone to make a comic,” Chat Noir told Ladybug later that night. 

Now that the two of them no longer worked during the calls, they had taken to playing Online Co-op Ultimate Mecha Strike. They stopped playing each other since Ladybug was so good it wasn’t even funny.

“What a coincidence, so have I.” Ladybug didn’t miss a beat as she landed a combo while Chat distracted the other mech. 

“Damn, we are so in sync it’s scary,” Chat murmured in wonder. It was a pretty big coincidence, so Ladybug couldn’t blame him.

“We should totally show each other our work when we’re done. Finally prove once and for all that I’m better.” Ladybug challenged, her competitive side brought out by her favorite video game.

“I’ll have to ask her first.” Chat’s voice became a little uncertain about the next part. “I’ll just say you’re an online friend of mine. After all, it’s not like I can just say ‘By the way, I’m actually Chat Noir and I want to show it to Ladybug!’ She would freak.”

“Huh? Why not?” Ladybug asked. It wasn’t like the two of them swore each other to secrecy about going on a hiatus.

“I was just going to work on it with one of my classmates in person.” Chat admitted, “And none of my friends know that I do this. And if I told her I was actually a pro, I think it may scare her off. Plus, there is all that pressure. Like people expect certain things out of Chat Noir. I kind of want to branch out. Besides, she loved the writing in _Miraculous_ , and I guess I don’t want to disappoint her since I’m in a slump.”

“Huh, I never thought about that…” Ladybug's thoughts turned to Adrien. She hadn’t really thought about the whole alter egos thing when it came to him. She had kept quiet earlier since it would be a little embarrassing, but there was still the question of experience. He had made his love of Ladybug’s work no secret, and Marinette remembered those heated arguments where he was actually just praising her.

Yeah, maybe she’ll pull a page out of Chat’s book and keep quiet about any previous works.

“So I may have to scan it or something so I can send it to you.” Chat had continued unknowing Ladybug’s dilemma, “After all, we won’t exactly have a drawing tablet to work on like you. We can go old school and still kick your butt!” Most of the storyboards that Chat worked on were done in pencil and paper. And occasionally MSPaint, just to annoy her.

Another dilemma! How exactly was Marinette going to explain having such an expensive setup! She even offered to meet at her house since this is where she stored all her WIPs!

* * *

“Whoa! This is so cool!” Adrien gasped as she uncovered her workspace. Whenever her friends visited, she covered it with a blanket, and most of them had the decency to listen and didn’t snoop (even if she did have to deal with some suggestive winks).

“Yup! Being Jagged Stone’s favorite designer definitely pays well.” Marinette smoothly whipped out the excuse she had prepared after hours of agonizing. She really didn’t like to brag, but it was either this or answer some very uncomfortable questions, so she awkwardly showed off.

“You know, sometimes I forget how amazing you are.” Adrien gazed at her with such admiration, 13-year-old her would have definitely swooned. Thankfully, she had gained years of resistance.

“Okay, _Mr. Actual-Supermodel-with-his-Face-on-basically-every-Billboard-in-Paris_ ,” Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Alright, point taken,” He laughed it off and pulled up a chair next to her desk, and she sat in front of the tablet.

“So let’s get right into it! You mentioned you had a couple of ideas for a story?” Marinette asked, making sure she used no technical jargon that may accidentally give away her identity.

“Right, I typed up some summaries here,” Adrien pulled out a laptop from his bookbag, “You can look through them and see if there are any you like. And I’m not too hung up on any of them, so feel free if you want to tweak them here and there.”

Marinette parsed the document, seeing the inner workings of the mind of a fashion heir. She wasn’t sure what she expected. After all, with Chat, you could expect lots of action and comedy. But Adrien’s stories were a lot more sensitive and romantic. Of course, they weren’t that different in the end, since the heart in Chat’s stories couldn’t be ignored, and Marinette snickered more than once at Adrien’s overcomplicated setups.

“I like this one,” Marinette pointed out a story involving a girl trying to confess to her crush, but she kept failing. At first, it was realistic, like forgetting to sign her name, but it gradually became more and more bizarre with things like time travelers somehow interrupting her. But it would end with a diabetes-inducing scene which revealed that the boy she was trying to confess to actually liked her all along, and was trying to confess as well. She could have a lot of fun drawing his hijinks in the background.

If it were anyone else, Marinette would have thought they were making fun of her old crush on Adrien. But somehow Adrien was the only person in the entire school who didn’t know about Marinette’s dark history. (Somehow even Chloe knew! She didn’t even pay attention to anyone other than herself!)

“Yeah, that’s one of my favorites too.” Adrien chuckled, “Do you have any ideas for the characters?”

“Well, I have a few sketches I was working on. You can have a look if you want, but I may need to change a couple of things so it fits.”

By the end of the day, the two of them had a solid idea of where they were going. And for the main characters, they chose a character who apparently looked a lot like Adrien’s cousin (he really did look like ‘Felix’) and a girl with a heart-shaped cowlick (now dubbed Bridgett).

And after coming up with backstories for the two of them and a general outline of the plot, Marinette couldn’t help but feel optimistic about the project.

* * *

“Since last time, I wrote a few outlines of pages for the comic.” Adrien pulled out a flash drive that held scanned images of paper that could be opened on Marinette’s tablet. “I didn’t really know how you wanted to do this, like if you wanted to work together on writing it. And I also didn’t want to be too much of a bother, so I didn’t really draw any expressions or anything and just put markers for the characters. You can do whatever you feel fits.” He was nervously fidgeting, but it was pretty well done. The lines were funny and he didn’t spout too much exposition to make it boring. Marinette didn’t give literary praise lightly, but Adrien was honestly comparable to Chat Noir! Although Marinette breathed a sigh of relief that there were absolutely zero puns! Besides, Chat Noir used a similar style so it wouldn’t be too hard to adjust. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir trusted each other to do their jobs, so they basically left each other to their own devices. (Except for snarky comments, feedback, sudden inspiration, last-minute corrections… actually, in hindsight, they interrupted each other a lot. Huh.)

“I don’t mind! But I kind of wanted to help when you’re drafting. That way I can help!” Marinette was a little disappointed, but it wasn’t all bad, “Although I’m glad you did a few pages. I kind of want to see what kind of writer you are!” Marinette didn’t want to step on Adrien’s toes too much. After all, this was supposed to be a joint project, but Marinette didn’t want to take over. And Adrien seemed to agree if that freedom he promised meant anything.

“My bad,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, “I can work on the next page now, and you can jump in whenever.”

“That works, but let me try the first page, and then we can see if it seems good!” Marinette jumped into her task. She tried to imagine what was going through Adrien’s head when he drew the rough draft of a panel. If it was Chat Noir, she would heavily exaggerate the expressions and body language to make it more comical. But then again, this was Adrien, and he was a lot subtler than her (possibly leather-clad) partner. Marinette decided to draw muted, but meaningful bearing to the characters. It didn’t take too long to make a rough sketch (or maybe it did? She was in the zone, she didn’t know), which she proudly displayed to Adrien.

“Wow, Marinette! This is beautiful!” Adrien looked starstruck at her work, but then his face scrunched up into a frown, “Although I may need to change Brigette’s tone said, or rearrange some lines… I sort of pictured her to be sillier and more exaggerated, and the tonal dissonance might confuse readers.”

“Sorry, I guess I should’ve considered that.” Marinette apologized, mentally facepalming because she should have noticed that! She was supposed to be a Pro! Chat would laugh at her for making such an amateur mistake!

“No, this drawing is really great! It's supposed to be a romance story after all! I should’ve gradually added jokes instead of starting with one. Lemme just change that real quick.” Adrien comforted her, and that helped her feel a little better. Maybe those Pro instincts had kicked in without her knowledge?

“Maybe you should leave some notes? That way I have some ideas into your thought process?” Marinette suggested, just to get them on the same page. It was naïve of her to think that she could work with Adrien in the same manner as Chat. Ladybug and Chat had years of experience working together, and Adrien was a stranger to the mind of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. They had to build this new partnership from the ground up!

“Yeah, let’s try it!” Adrien agreed and started writing notes on the next panel. But when he was finished, Marinette was confronted with a wall of text. Just a brief glance was enough to realize that it had way too much unnecessary details! Some of them even contradicted each other!

“I think this might be a bit much…” Marinette tried to let him down gently. Immediately, Adrien erased a good chunk of them, but it still felt constricting to have all these impressions. She wondered if she could possibly balance both of their ideas on this page.

Okay, so maybe there were a few bumps in this road for this partnership, but they could solve this! After all, it wasn’t like it had been smooth sailing for Ladybug and Chat Noir on Day 1 either! Gradually Ladybug learned to be less controlling and Chat learned to be more forthcoming with his ideas. And after some rough early chapters, they reached that happy median and made bank with _Miraculous_!

Marinette and Adrien could do this!

* * *

With very mixed feelings, Marinette and Adrien asked Alya and Nino if they wanted to read their finished comic. Being the Supportive Best Friends they were, obviously, they said yes! Actually, the couple had been nagging the two for sneak peeks ever since they found out they were working on a graphic novel! It was only by promising they would be the first to see that they calmed down long enough for Marinette and Adrien to finish.

And it was the moment of truth! Nino loved his friends and would love anything they came up with. He was easy to please. No, their true critic was Alya! Alya was an avid lover of all kinds of comic books. She even wanted to be a journalist in the future, so she was a harsh reviewer. With bated breath, they awaited her final judgment!

“Honestly, I didn’t expect much since it was both of yours first time making a comic, but it’s not bad.” Alya seemed impressed. “Bridgett was so adorable and funny! Although it can be a bit hard to follow her thoughts sometimes. I think you might have made it a bit wordy at times.”

“Dudes, I had a blast when I reread it, though!” Nino praised, “It was hilarious watching Felix deal with the same stuff in the background! Although it was a little hard to see him sometimes.”

“Honestly, you two are really good! You should make more of these, or at least let me post it on my blog so others can read it too! It reminds me of some of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s early stuff!” Alya finished.

That should have been good enough. After all, Marinette had conquered her slump, she had made a decent comic that wasn’t a complete rip off of her last work. And Chat Noir said he and his new artist were almost wrapping up their comic soon. The two of them could probably work together again.

But it felt wrong.

Her and Chat Noir’s early stuff was almost 4 years ago! She shouldn’t have regressed that far! She was not the same person from that long ago! She learned and improved so much! But did that growth have to be connected to Chat Noir?

“Thanks, guys!” Adrien looked similarly conflicted, but he appreciated their friends' support.

“Yeah, we weren’t that confident, but I’m glad you two like it! It means a lot to us!” Marinette agreed.

“No, thank you, guys!” Nino turned it around on them, “I can’t believe you two had this hidden talent this whole time! That’s so cool!”

But after saying goodbye to their two adoring fans, the two of them breathed a sigh of defeat.

“I’m glad they liked it, but…” Adrien started, but Marinette understood.

“Right, I think we should have done a lot better.”

“Marinette, I’m sorry. You’re really good at illustrating, and I feel like I dragged you down. The balance in the comic was all off.” Adrien apologized, taking the words straight out of her mouth.

“No, you’re really talented too! It’s neither of our faults. I think we just put my drawings on your writings. It’s unnatural. We should have been more involved with each other from the start and blended our styles.” Marinette sighed as she realized all their mistakes only in hindsight.

“Yeah, that’s true. I just didn’t want to scare you off by being demanding. But I guess coddling you is its own problem.”

“Honestly, same. Plus I think I might have been a bit too egoistic. Actually, that wasn’t my first time drawing a comic, so I guess I thought I knew better than you sometimes. Sorry.” Marinette confessed. It was awkward to reflect on, since she tried to stay out of his way, and instead relied on her own skill to carry them. But they were supposed to be partners, and so obviously that didn’t work out. It takes two to tango after all.

“Huh, that’s funny. I’m actually the same way. I also thought I had more experience, so I did the same. I lied since I didn’t want to scare you off.” Adrien gave a soft laugh at the coincidence. Actually, it explained a lot. There was a lot of dialogue and narration that outright stated things that Marinette tried to subtly hint at in the drawings. Marinette joined in the laughter as she realized that they made the same mistakes. “Maybe the reason we were off-balance was because we weren’t completely honest with each other.”

“We should make another comic together, someday.” Marinette looked into the distance, “Not now, of course, but in the future. I mean, it didn’t turn out that great, but I still had fun. We should do this again, sometime.” She didn’t get to hang out that much with Adrien since he had such a full schedule, so she was always happy when they could spend time together. They had an easy friendship, almost reminding her of Ladybug and Chat Noir, although there was far less trash talking.

“I’d like that.” Adrien mused.

* * *

“So how did things go with _loverboy_?” Chat asked, teasing her since she foolishly revealed that she was working with her former crush. Not that Chat’s partner had less history. Apparently she hated him at first. But the two of them had finished their side projects and were working together again. Currently they were brainstorming a potential new story.

“Not too bad,” Ladybug told him, “We finished and it wasn’t great, but I like it. It was nice to work with someone else for a change.”

“So mean! I’m right here!” Chat whimpered with fake hurt. “But I get what you mean. I got so used to working with you, it was kind of a wake-up call. Plus, now I have some practice with making a brand new story! I guess you could call it an un- _fur-_ gettable experience!”

Ladybug groaned at his pun, but their conversation reminded her of the promise they made before the hiatus.

“Oh yeah, we said we’d compare our works once we finished. If I were you, I’d get ready for the taste of defeat! My new writer was probably more talented than even you! Probably more handsome, too,” Adrien was a model after all. Ladybug pulled up the file containing her new comic and prepared to email it to Chat (after redacting any names, of course.)

Sure she and Adrien thought they could have done better, but she refused to show weakness out of principle! 

“Au contraire, Milady! My new artist is the absolute best! Even Jagged Stone even loves her!” Chat boasted, but Ladybug rolled her eyes. After all, she was Jagged Stone’s honorary niece, Chat’s new artist would never compare to her.

When she opened the file Chat sent to her, Ladybug noticed an error. Maybe because the two of them sent the email at the same time, but the attachments got mixed up. It accidentally contained _Marinette_ ’s comic, not Chats. Hell, it even changed the name of her file to Chat’s. Also, the redaction on the first page was missing.

Oh, who was she fooling? There wasn’t any error. This was the worst.

“Marinette!?” Chat Noir– no Adrien asked. He sounded just as shocked as Marinette.

She was never going to live this down! 

“Just give me a minute, Adrien, please,” Marinette begged.

How did she somehow stop working with her partner, just to start working with her partner? Alya even compared it to their early work!? Oh no, and that trash talk just a few moments ago… 

_So_ embarrassing.

* * *

**Some Post-Reveal Conversations:**

**Marinette:** So I’ve been begging you to stop punning for years! Literal years! And you always refused! But when Marinette says she hates puns, you suddenly decide to listen!

 **Adrien:** In my defense, I have an _image_ to maintain as Adrien. Plus I used to be scared that you might secretly hate me, so I didn’t want to poke the bear.

 **Marinette:** I don’t suppose you plan on keeping up that image?

 **Adrien:** _[With the biggest shit-eating grin, popping the ‘p’]_ Nope!

 **Marinette:** I really do hate you right now.

**Adrien:** Wait does that mean you used to have a crush on me?

**Alya:** _[Furiously enters the classroom to find Adrien and Marinette]_ You two won’t believe this!

 **Marinette:** _[Already knows what this is about]_ Oh? What’s wrong Alya?

 **Alya:** _[Shows them Ladybug and Chat Noir’s website]_ Their newest comic! They dropped it out of nowhere and it’s a complete ripoff of yours!

 **Adrien:** _[Was the one who suggested the prank]_ Weird… So how was it?

 **Alya:** It was Ladybug and Chat Noir! Of course it was good! Actually, it was better than yours, but that doesn’t change anything! I’m furious! I can’t believe they would blatantly plagiarize you guys like that! I was going to expose them, but I wanted to get your opinions on this first!

 **Marinette:** What are you talking about? They credited us right there _[Points to author’s names]_

 **Alya:**???

 **Alya:** …

 **Alya:** _[Sudden realization]_ OMG! I can’t believe you two let me and Nino read your first draft just so you guys could reveal yourselves like this!

 **Adrien:** Oh, actually–

 **Marinette:** _[Realized they have the perfect excuse and really doesn’t want to die of embarrassment again]_ Yes! That’s exactly what happened! It was completely intentional! 

**Nino** : Whoa dudes! I can’t believe that Adrien is Ladybug and Marinette is Chat Noir! You guys are so awesome!

 **Adrien:** Uh, bro? I’m Chat Noir, and Marinette is Ladybug.

 **Nino** : Seriously? But you guys were always arguing about who was better, so I thought you guys were subtly bragging or something. 

**Nino** : Wait, does this mean that you two were actually aggressively complimenting each other this whole time?

 **Adrien:** Huh.

 **Marinette:** _[Dead Inside]_ _So_ embarrassing.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I should clear something up at the end of this fic. So in this fic, I said that Chat Noir and Ladybug worked together better than Adrien and Marinette. And since Ladynoir and Adrienette are also popular ships, I can see why it looks like I’m saying Ladynoir is a better ship than Adrinette, which I am not doing. I like all sides of the love square, and really don’t think you should compare them to each other since they are essentially the same ship. Them working together is not some metaphor for them dating. The only reason Chat Noir and Ladybug worked better together was because they had more experience together. That is why Marinette and Adrien’s work was compared to their alter egos’s early work. If they kept working together, they would eventually reach or surpass Chat Noir and Ladybug’s level. I wanted to put this disclaimer since ships can be important to some people, and I don’t want people to think I’m bashing them.


End file.
